'The unprecedented increase in oil and food prices risks jeopardising our developmental gains'.
India today asked SAARC, a group of South Asian countries, to work for an effective global response to the record rally in oil and food prices, which can jeopardise development gains in the region.
“SAARC must make its voice heard in the councils of the world to ensure that there is an effective global response that protects the interests of oil consuming countries,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at the 15th SAARC Summit here.
The prime minister said to become a “dynamic and responsive” body, SAARC must identify and address new challenges. “The unprecedented increase in oil and food prices risks jeopardising our developmental gains,” he said.
Singh said the Indian economy had grown by at an average rate of 8.8 per cent in the past four years. He said Asia had become the engine of growth of the world economy and “South Asia a part of this resurgence”.
India, which imports over 70 per cent of its crude oil requirements, has been seeking a strong global response to the runaway rise in fuel prices. It had also suggested a price band, but there were no takers for the idea.
Rising crude prices pushed India’s oil import bill by over 50 per cent to $ 25.52 billion for the April-June quarter of 2008-09, from $16.99 billion in the corresponding period last year.
In a significant move, the SAARC countries today decided to put in place a regional legal framework to tackle terrorism after a call by the prime minister for a collective and “determined” fight against the menace.
